Rohan Arora

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Rohan Arora has always been driven by a common goal of creating a world-class company. However, when you are able to do that in an area, which is close to the heart of every person, then it makes it more special. With more than a decade of experience in the food industry working across various domains, he took it upon himself to bring his idea to reality. This is where the journey of Bueno food started.

Rohan has always been passionate about making Quality Food Accessible to everyone in this world. Ever since he was 16 years old, he was convinced of building an everlasting Food enterprise that shall transform the society, which battles with Hunger every day. After completing his graduation as a Computer Engineer he went on to pursue his MBA from FMS. A decade later, he started to complete his vision again. Today, Bueno Foods has become a one-stop shop for Quality Global Food delivering Fresh & Healthy Gourmet meals right at the consumer’s doorstep across various cuisines.

Buéno XPRS, on the other hand, has a handpicked choice of the most popular dishes for on-demand needs (currently delivering in Gurgaon). Managing our kitchens & delivery operations 24×7, we have a team of experienced Five-Star Chefs and operations experts. So, whether it is an impulse craving to eat something good, a planned get-together on a joyful occasion, an elaborate office party or anything else, Bueno is the integrated one-stop-shop for delectable global food where there’s something for everyone!

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

I and Pankaj met at FMS Delhi and were batch mates. Vipul Arora and Puneet knew each other from their college and training days. About four years back, Vipul and I got in touch through Mr V S Dutta. All of us are driven by the common goal of creating a world class company in an area which is close to our heart i.e. FOOD.

Bueno conducted primary research covering more than 2000 participants in December 2012 to Feb 2013 to develop a better understanding of food habits of people. The second phase of this study was in December 2013 to Feb 2014 covering 1000 respondents. The target group for this study was working professionals with an income of minimum 600,000 p.a. and in the age group of 22-35 years, with at least 18 months of professional experience. This research suggests that the key factors in decision making on food are in following order, a) perception or social approval, b) pricing, c) quality, d) consistency of experience. Average order in / Eat out Order Size per person is Rs 300-500 with an order frequency of 1-2 times Every week. The % of repeat order is ~40%.

What is your life mantra?

Goodness for Self, for Society and the Planet.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

Every start-up face challenges and hurdles while starting-up, so do we? It’s not any different with us. The key hurdles which we faced through our journey till now are as follows. The biggest challenge was to decide ‘what and how’. Hence, vision and hard work, both are equally important. Vision is important to take the right direction and hard work/team effort for execution.

Finding the right people is a big challenge and if you find them, how to make them aligned with venture’s strategy. External environment can change very fast and there won’t be enough time to react for ventures. More often than not, funds is a challenge and hence, it is important to raise fund when you can and not wait for the perfect opportunity, source or time

How did you overcome those challenges?

We did manage to overcome those challenges. The first step is to identify the gap in current offerings available in the market, we carried out an extensive primary research to find and validate that, secondly motivation is key for people and that comes when commercial interests are aligned apart from freedom for them to do things the way they want, we ensured this by providing generous stock options

One needs to be quick to react and see what the alternatives available are? It is the key to decide quickly and move on to the next phase, we always do that. One has to be prepared for tactical withdrawal whenever the situation warrants that, we have changed gears depending on the external environment and have continued to explore funding options even when we didn’t need it.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

We have put in Rs 2 crore of investment already from family and friends; we are now looking for funding and expecting to raise $1 million from institutional investors.

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

Currently we are a small team of 20 members. We are working as a family and everybody is given the freedom to work on their own and experiment with ideas and explores things going beyond the set rules. There is no hard fast rule and hierarchical structure which normally is prevalent in big organizations. I believe these pyramid structures restricts one’s mind and makes the process slow which in turns affects the productivity of the organization and we being a start-up can’t afford to be slow and steady. When it comes to attrition control, as far as the employees are attached and they love what they are doing, there is no point of attrition control practices coming to the picture.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

These are the below mentioned three qualities an individual must possess to achieve success,

Persistence

Discipline and Hard work

Conviction

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

I use Google Maps the most as it helps us to locate the consumers address to deliver food on time.

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

Meditation

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

I would like to change the habit of my love for food as I am a fitness freak and would like to restrain from eating much to stay healthy and fit.

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success:

I would suggest that one should never give-up till one achieves his/her goal.

One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

I would say every entrepreneur should avoid over-capitalization of their business.

One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

Be prepared for anything and everything, there are no defined rules for anything when you are a start up. So, you have to be extremely disciplined. Passion is important but don’t be blind with that. Always take calculated risks, it is difficult but try to use the right combination of heart and cold logic.

What are your plans for next 3 years?

Our plan for next 3 years is to become a Pan India company operating in 25 cities across India.

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

If I would get a chance to start my career again, one thing I would do differently this time is I would go for a job after completing my Engineering, gain some work experience and do an MBA for better understanding of market and business landscape.

What are your top three getaway destinations?

My top 3 getaway destinations are Kashmir in India, Philippines in South East Asia and Zanzibar in Tanzania.